How Devlin Potter was bitten by Remus Lupin
by GingeredTea
Summary: A glimpse at why Remus Lupin chose to bite 3yrd Devlin Potter. This is a snippet from my main story: "Devlin Potter's Story" Rated T just to be safe.


**This is a snippet. Don't expect it to be perfect. Don't expect it to be stagnant. I may decide next week to edit or add to it, or it may stay this way forever. It is merely a plot point – an attempt to make sure I like saying "this is how Devlin was bitten" in the rest of the story. I post this snippets because I figure my readers might be interested in knowing the background to a part of the main story but I don't think it will ever be put directly into the main story. :) **

**For those who have not read the Devlin Potter's story,**** this is just a side-plot or side-story from that main story. Devlin is Harry and Alexandra Potter's son, and in this is around three years old. **

"Harry, it's him!" The words make Harry's heart freeze. For a moment he is trapped in his memories of his own parent's death, but then he snaps back into reality. His wife is looking out their bedroom window that overlooks the front lawn.

"Get the baby, Alex!" He yells, even though she is right beside him. He runs down stairs to find Devlin, their eldest son. His feet clatter down the stairs. He hurls himself around the corner.

"Hello Mister Potter," Harry would know the silky voice anywhere; it is Draco Malfoy, hidden beneath a Death Eater mask. "The Dark Lord said you'd do this."

"Do what, Malfoy?"

"Stand here stupidly and try to distract us while your wife and spawn escape. Said we should expect you to act just like your father. Apparently the Dark Lord found Potter Senior in his living room too."

Harry keeps his body tense, lest Malfoy realize his relief: they haven't found Devlin.

They circle each other around the coffee table. Harry knows this living room by heart, and almost laughs when one of Devlin's toy dragons comes alive and nips at Draco's heel after being stepped on. Curses fly, shields are erected.

"Do you know why your mother never escaped with you? The Dark Lord told me."

"Talkative bastard today, aren't you?"

"I asked you a question, Potter. But since you're being so impolite, I'll simply answer you. She couldn't escape because the Dark Lord had put up anti-_apparition_ wards, just like we have." Harry feels all his blood drop from his face. Alex and Emma were trapped upstairs. He swallows.

"Your house is surrounded by Death Eaters. When I give the word, they'll be entering your house through every window and door. You and Alex don't stand a chance of fighting with your hands full of brats."

Inside, Harry is shaking in fear. Then all at once the slightest sound beneath his feet makes him stop. Today is the full moon. Below his feet is a fully cognizant Werewolf, able to help him fight. The only bad part is that he'll owe Snape once more for his invention of the Wolfsbane potion. Thank goodness Sirius had been too busy to keep an eye on the werewolf tonight.

"Have your people ever been able to harm my family? Hasn't Tom learned his lesson? You come threatening me with your foolproof plan, but I've proven the impossible possible all my life. You don't scare me." _Devlin, wherever you've hidden, please stay there_.

"Very well," Malfoy says softly and swooshes his wand. Voldemort's symbol shoots out of his wand tip and flies through the open door like an evil Patronus. A moment later there are seven more Death Eaters in the living room. Harry blasts open the door to his left, right between the kitchen and the living room. "MOONY!" he shouts. There is a scratching sound as something rushes up the stairs and a howl as the monster just moments before locked away pokes its head around the doorframe and witnesses the situation. _His_ Harry is in _trouble!_

The wolf's hackles raise and he pulls his lips back to show his teeth. Behind his mask, Draco Malfoy's eyes go wide with terror, but then he steels himself.

Then, several things happen at the same time. The Wolf rushes to attack the Death Eaters, Draco Malfoy rushes to attack Harry Potter, and three Death Eaters drag a crying Alexandra and a screaming Emma (wrapped in her mothers arms) down the stairs. Before Harry can do anything, a small boy with a mop of dark umber hair, rushes out of his hiding spot in the coat closet and hurls himself towards his crying mother.

In Devlin's path is the Killing Curse, meant for his father. Harry throws himself into the crowd, directly in front of the curse, trying to get to his son, but he knows he won't reach him in time.

Amber eyes go wide. The man inside of the wolf weighs his options quickly and seeing death, opens his mouth and latches his teeth onto the boys shoulder, pulling him away from the curse. Harry shoves a Death Eater in front of himself, watching the man go limp in his hands.

The wolf pulls the boy behind him, pushing him into a corner and then turning around and guarding him with his life. The man inside is reeling. What had he just done? Had he pierced the skin? He had tried to grab only the boy's shirt. He growls. The wolf protects Harry because he is the man's pup. Now he glances at the child huddled in the corner, spasms rushing down his body uncontrollably, and knows he's no longer just part of the man's pack, but _his_. One of the Death Eaters dares to approach him and he bites into him, his teeth sinking into the man's heart until it stops beating. He glances around again and notices the pups eyes, green swimming in a pool of darkening amber. He turns away from the battle only long enough to nudge the boy awake and lap at his wound, clearly visible now that the t-shirt has fallen halfway off that shoulder, the fabric ripped. The man inside of him is weeping, but the wolf knows there is no point in wondering what the boy has lost, only what he is now: his pup.

"Moony," the boy moans softly. "It _hurts_." There are tears running down his cheeks. The man in the wolf wants to whisper things to him. '_Just let go, don't fight it. If you fight it, it will be worse.'_ But even the man knows there are more important things. He not only has to guard the child, he has to keep him in the corner, away from his family. He isn't dosed with Wolfsbane. Auror's arrive moments later and the Death Eaters, having their wards broken by the Auror's, _pop_ away. Harry Potter rushes over to his son, but the wolf snaps at him, keeping him at bay. Even as the wolf growls his eyes look so terribly sad. He shakes his head, hoping the human will understand. The child is still convulsing, fighting his new illness with all he has. Remus knows it is a losing battle. He goes to the corner and curls around the child and when the child begins to whimper, the wolf lifts its head and howls in its own pain.

The wolf watches as the redhead, 'Ron'_ Remus _corrects, takes the woman and the infant away, but the man 'Harry' remains, despite the white-dressed 'Auror's' attempts to tell him otherwise.

"I'm staying with my son. You're not taking him _anywhere_." And so the wolf turned around again, reassured for his pup's safety. Within the next hour his pup had teeth and paws of his own and a nose, which instantly smelled _human_ and began to rise to investigate. The wolf didn't mind, but the man inside of him did. He took over and lifted the pup, so small that he was easily carried by the nape, and put him back in the corner, growling at him. _Stay_ he growled and the pup cowered and did as it was told.

Dawn came and Remus found himself tucked under the covers of the Potter's guest room bed. Usually when he woke up after the full moon, he'd still be in the basement, and a fresh pair of clothes would be waiting for him at the top of the stairs. He noticed he was naked except for a pair of pants. Memories, extremely hazy, came to him and he rushed down the stairs. Harry potter was sitting on the sofa in the living room, holding Devlin against him. The boy was dressed in his favorite pajamas. Just the night before he had begged to wear them, but his mother had insisted they barely fit him anymore.

"Oh Merlin," he said, tears rushing down his cheeks. "Oh Merlin. Harry…I am so _sorry_." He wanted to kill himself. He wanted Harry to kill him. He wanted to simply disappear.

"You saved him, Remus," Harry sobbed, clutching the sleeping child closer. The boy whimpered in his sleep and Remus found himself unable to breath. It took all his strength to stop himself from grabbing the boy from Harry and inspecting him to make sure he was okay.

"I bit him. I _remember_."

"He was running to his Mum…he was running _toward_ a killing curse, meant for _me._ I couldn't get to him fast enough. You pulled his back. It's not as if you have _hands_ when you're like that, Remus. He is breathing," Harry put his hand against the boy's chest, as if to be reassured. "I can hold him. That is more than I thought I would be able to do, while I was trying to rush towards him and that curse."

"Daddy?" The words, full of pain and confusion, send Harry into a fit of sobs. "Daddy…my shoulder hurts. I want Mummy!" The boy was wrapped tightly in blankets and even more tightly in his father's arms, but he squirmed to get free. "My head hurts Daddy." He said. "Where is Mummy?"

He squirmed some more and caught site of Remus. "Why you cryin', Mooney? Why don't you got a shirt on?"

But neither man was listening to him at all and it was making Devlin's head hurt even more. He just wanted his Mum.

He wiggled free of his fathers hands and began to demand his mother again, when he caught site of his own shoulder. His left arm had been left out of PJ top entirely and had a big white bandage covering it. He touched it gingerly and the pain made him remember the night before, at least partly. Daddy and Mummy had put Ana to bed and he'd heard a noise.

He thought it was his Daddy coming down to tell him his ten minutes of playtime were up and he'd hidden in the coat closet so that he could surprise Daddy. But instead of his Daddy's feet, he'd seen black shoes. Daddy only black shoes, the ones he wore to work, were sitting next to Devlin in the coats closet. He'd frowned. Then he'd heard Mummy yell "their here!" and Daddy tell her to take Ana and run.

He'd heard running down the stairs and the black shoe person had said hello to his Daddy. He remembered holding his breath until he heard crying and he knew it was Mum's crying and he'd wanted her so much that he'd rushed out of the closet without looking and tried to run to her arms, but something had grabbed him and pulled him down…. He squinted, trying to remember more, but it was too hazy. He remembered shaking and hurting, and someone cuddling him.

"Daddy?" His bottom lip falls forward and he melts onto the floor. "Daddy, I want Mummy!"

"She'll be home real soon, Devlin," he whispers, trying to gather the boy in his arms again, but the boy slinks away.

"No, I want her _now_,_" _he says. He feels something in his chest tighten and finds himself standing up, baring his clenched teeth at his father, yelling. Oh he'd be in so much trouble, but the thing in his chest didn't care!

"The doctors have to check Ana, then she'll be back."

"I want Mum _NOW_!" Suddenly a hand on his good shoulder spins him around he's eye to eye with Mooney. Something in the man's eyes speaks to the thing in his chest and calms it down so that Devlin feels almost well again.

"I just want Mummy," he whines softly. He hurls himself at Remus, burying his head against his bare chest and breathing deeply. For some reason, he actually _smells_ Remus. Not the kind of smell like when Mummy says "Devlin, you _need_ a bath tonight" but just as if the man had a smell-name, different from anyone else. He lifted his head and looked at his Dad and frowned.

"Daddy you and Mooney smell funny."

"I smell like me, Harry smells like himself, and you smell like you. It's just your nose is growing up and you can smell it now…" Remus looked at Harry, hoping Harry would take pity on him and not make him tell the boy yet. Harry nodded softly.


End file.
